Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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One of my colleagues recently won positions in three regional orchestras. This very talented individual began his college career as a biochemistry major, later switching his major to double bass performance. This highly intelligent and talented scientific mind then focused his energies on becoming the best double bass player he could possibly be, practicing [...]

For the second part of the Double Bass Blog series Thoughts from the Trenches – Double Bass Private Studio Teaching, I would like to offer some thoughts on recruiting & building a studio. This is often a topic that never comes up in traditional music programs and ends up being vitally important as a [...]

I hope that readers enjoyed Orchestras - A Secret Society of Weirdoes (and I’m one of them!), which I put out on the blog yesterday as part 4 of This Crazy Business. This series has been a lot of fun to write, and I’m in the middle of putting together the next installment, which [...]

This is a post by Bill Harrison - playjazznow.com
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I’m a musician. You know - a man with no marketable skills. Civilians sometimes ask me what I do for a living; musicians I run into often ask me what kind of stuff I’ve been doing lately. These questions always leave me tongue-tied. What on earth DO [...]

In this series we have discussed the alternate mental circuitry developed by musicians, how addictive this art form can be once this circuitry is hard-wired, and how this addiction causes musicians to tolerate employment circumstances that appear untenable to non-musicians, all to get an opportunity to practice their craft (and get their fix) as frequently [...]

Double bassist Tyler Bakken sent me a link to this story about the Houston Symphony’s newest PR idea–trading cards! Kurt Johnson, the violinist mentioned in the following quote, is an old acquaintance of mine. We both attended Northwestern University and played in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago masters degree fellowship program in the [...]

After finishing my doctoral coursework in 2002, I moved out to the suburbs of Chicago, not knowing what I was getting into with building a private studio. Like many bassists, I planned on trying my hand at freelancing (in a bassist saturated city like Chicago). What ensued was the best learning experience of my [...]

Bill Harrison wrote a great piece on his blog recently elaborating on some of the issues I discussed in the latest installment of This Crazy Business. He writes:
There’s an old joke in the biz: Q: “How do you make a musician complain?” A: “Give him a job.” That is as succinct an assessment as [...]

Plane Trips with Basses Are Fun – If Fun for You is Getting Attacked by Rabid Weasels
Traveling with a bass is an annoyance by cab and an irritation by train, but the real drama occurs when we intrepid (or foolhardy) bassists venture out to our nearest airport to load our instruments on a plane.
After all, [...]

This week featured the second part of This Crazy Business, my new series about life as a working musician. Unlike Road Warrior Without an Expense Account (which is about being a freelance musician), this series is about life as a musician in general.
If you’d like to read the 50 or so more substantial articles [...]